1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to excise-form and shuttle systems, more particularly to excise-form and shuttle systems and apparatuses capable of transfer molding, trim and form feeding, and the like, used in the surface mount electronics industry.
2. Description of Prior Art
Numerous excise-form and shuttle systems have been proposed an implemented for the semiconductor industry, and in particular for the surface mount applications within the industry.
Representative examples of such apparatuses include, U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,837 issued to Eshima et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,159 issued to Waldner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,673 issued to Kashara et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,457,662 issued to Ireland et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,306 issued to Hug et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,815 issued to Nakano et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,364 issued to St. Louis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,376 issued to Delorme et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,925, issued to Keizer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,834 issued to Holler et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,672 issued to Martyn.
Although some similarities exist, of a general nature, between the present invention and prior devices, none provides a slide loading configuration which does not require clamping of the component part to shuttle it. None of the prior art devices known utilizes a mechanical elevating and retracting cam system which drives a load arm which is attached to a moveable die plate so as to shuttle the component part. The present invention provides a completely novel component transfer system and apparatus which allows the overall design of the shuttle system to be relatively small in relation to prior art apparatuses. The novel cam driven sliding shuttle design of the present invention further allows the transfer of components by the apparatus with a maximum of internal moving parts resulting in a more reliable, efficient, and inexpensive apparatus than any disclosed in the prior art.